It Is Fun to be Free

By Carol Shepherd

I can't quite wrap my brain around being one of the at risk people for the coronavirus.  My children keep reminding me that I need to be careful since I am in my 7th decade of life.  I certainly don't feel like I am old enough to be part of the at risk group.

Anyway, over the weekend, my husband and I were with one of our four daughters and her family.  Standing in the middle of the great room with seven grandchildren climbing, talking, yelling, laughing, arguing, reading, crying, running, asking for permission, playing the piano, doing gymnastics off the sofa, and just generally creating massive chaos, I had an awareness that thrilled me.  I am a perfectionist by personality, a number one on the enneagram, a melancholic choleric on the LaHaye personality test, and an introvert on top of that. There is a right way to do everything and as an introvert I stuff my anxiety when things are chaotic and I work harder to control my environment.    But, on the weekend I realized that I was supremely happy and I was soaking up everything that was going on. Twenty years ago, I would not have been happy. I would have been frantically attempting to control the chaos and figure out the right thing to do. What a blessing to be in my 7th decade and to see the joy right in front of me in the middle of the mess.  One of the precious things about getting old, as I realize I am, is the great freedom of letting go. 

When 2020 started, I decided that this year I am going to read Galatians over and over and over.  I finish chapter 6, and I go back to chapter 1 and I start over. The reason I am doing this, is because I want my heart to soak up the freedom that God has for me.  I have spent my life with a thumb in my back attempting to be good and to gain God's approval. But, I don't want to do that another second of the years I have left to live.  Maybe I'll live to be 100. Maybe not. But, I want every day to be spent in freedom. 

Galatians 5:1 "it was for freedom that Christ has set us free; therefore keep standing firm and do not be subject again to a yoke of slavery."